Rick Perry, Weighing ’16 Bid, Visits California to Tout Texas Economy

ByAlejandro Lazo

Texas Gov. Rick Perry, center, talks to reporters after driving up in a Tesla Motors Type S electric car in Sacramento, Calif., Tuesday, June 10, 2014. He is trying to persuade Tesla Motors, based in Palo Alto, to build a $5 billion battery plant in Texas. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)

Associated Press

SAN FRANCISCO–With a presidential run squarely “on the table,” Texas Gov. Rick Perry visited California this week to tout his economic policies and openly taunt Californians with his success in poaching some of their high-paying manufacturing jobs.

Mr. Perry said in an interview that he’d learned tough lessons from his failed 2012 White House bid, in which he disastrously forgot which federal agencies he wanted to eliminate during a Republican presidential debate. The three-term governor said he won’t officially decide anything about a 2016 run until next year.

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“It’s obviously on the table. It’s something that I am actively considering. I don’t shy away from telling people that,” Mr. Perry said, speaking in a conference room at the tony InterContinental Mark Hopkins Hotel in San Francisco’s Nob Hill neighborhood. “I’ve done it once, and I learned some very good lessons, some humbling lessons—some frustrating lessons.”

Mr. Perry was in California to help raise money for GOP candidates and advertise his state’s economic policies. On Tuesday, Mr. Perry had arrived in Sacramento, the state capital, in a rented Tesla, just as California lawmakers are trying to entice Tesla Motors to build an electric-car battery factory in the state. Texas is also competing heavily for the jobs.

Mr. Perry has made it a habit of bragging about taking California businesses. The latest move came in April when Toyota Motor said it would consolidate several units at a new headquarters in Plano, Texas, moving thousands of jobs out of California. In that relocation, Texas offered Toyota $40 million to move, part of Mr. Perry’s Texas Enterprise Fund incentive program.

That incentive program has come under fire from some Texas Republicans, just as Mr. Perry eyes a presidential run based on his economic record. But the governor on Wednesday said there was little chance of his legacy being dismantled.

“The Republican-controlled House and Senate voted for all of those, overwhelmingly. End of conversation,” Mr. Perry said.

“My bet is that you could find someone, somewhere in the Texas legislature to criticize a program, either a Democrat or a Republican. Can you find enough to be a majority? My bet is no.”

Mr. Perry also delivered remarks on energy policy to an audience of San Francisco’s Commonwealth Club members Wednesday evening, and then took several questions through a moderator on a range of issues from his stance on climate change to the nature of homosexuality.

During his question and answer session, Mr. Perry chided Rep. Eric Cantor (R., Va.) for not spending enough time with his constituents as a reason that the second-ranking U.S. House Republican lost in the Virginia primary to a little known tea party challenger Tuesday.

“You don’t wish you’d been to the bank more, you don’t wish you’d been to the office more, you wish you’d been with the people you love, more,” Mr. Perry said. “So I am thinking he may have that same kind of regret.”

Sounding off on policy matters, Mr. Perry also appeared less skeptical than during his last presidential bid on whether climate change was caused by humans. But he was quick to say more regulation was not the answer.

“If man’s engagement is the reason it’s occurring, then we need to have the solutions to that,” Mr. Perry said. “If it’s not, then everything is going to be fine. But if it is, we need to be able to have the answers to that. And my great concern is that, policies that are put in place in Washington, D.C., can strangle the economy of this country, jeopardize our ability to innovate.”

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